Volleyball Insider: Antonian off to fast start in three-peat bid

Published 12:07 pm, Tuesday, August 16, 2011

If you judge them by their résumé along, the seniors on the Antonian volleyball team appear to already have it all.

The Apaches have advanced to the TAPPS 5A state tournament in each of the previous three seasons, winning championships in 2009 and 2010.

And yet, Antonian is far from being satisfied.

As the Apaches rolled to history on Saturday, becoming the first private school to win the Northside tournament, one sensed that another piece of history was foremost in their mind: Becoming the first Greater San Antonio area school to capture three straight TAPPS state volleyball championships.

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“We know we haven’t peaked yet,” Antonian senior middle hitter Jordan Ruiz said. “We started off kind of rough, not playing as a team and just the little errors. We all sat down and decided that (Saturday) was the day we were going to change it, and that we were going to come together.’’

By the time the Northside tournament was finished on Saturday, the Apaches had knocked off a Who’s Who of Greater San Antonio area volleyball in a span of six hours. They outlasted O’Connor 25-18, 24-26, 25-19 in the quarterfinals. They went the distance again in edging Churchill in the semifinals, prevailing 25-22, 22-25, 25-14.

In the final, Antonian avenged a loss to Clark a day earlier in pool play, knocking off the Cougars 25-17, 25-16. The Apaches set the tone early against Clark, which is off to its best start since 2004, building leads of 7-0 and 14-3 in Game 1. They trailed just twice during the match, 1-0 and 2-1 in the second game.

“We come in knowing that it’s going to be another game, and that we have to be ready for it no matter who we play,” said Ruiz, who was named the event’s MVP and was joined on the all-tournament team by libero Tori Estrada. “It’s such an amazing feeling.’’

National attention: Johnson’s Carnae Dillard, New Braunfels’ Angela Lowak and Incarnate Word’s Kimberly Vaio were named to the American Volleyball Coaches Association Under Armour All-America watch list.

The list includes 646 players from 38 states and serves as the starting point for the Under Armour All-America selection process.

In November, the AVCA will name 48 players as All-Americans. Each of the players will be invited to compete in the All-American match on Dec. 16 at the Alamodome.